


The Only Call

by clearascountryair



Series: Magnificence [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Post Season 4, Romance, S5 spec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 06:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11030658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearascountryair/pseuds/clearascountryair
Summary: They were told it wasn't prison.  But after a week in holding cells and a single phone call to say goodbye, there's little else it can be





	The Only Call

"You know," Daisy said as they sat her down, "'mandatory new placement' sounds a lot like 'exile.'"

"Or prison," May responded coolly.

"Yeah, well, I'm trying to be an optimist."

Jemma sighed as she took her seat next to Elena.  "The alphabetical arrangement may be giving them away.  And the inhibitive gauntlets."  She cast a glance down the line to where Daisy sat between Fitz and Mack before smiling at Fitz.  "Our design would be far more attractive, wouldn't it?"

Fitz responded with a small, sad smile that looked misplaced in his beard.  He clearly hadn’t shaved since their return from the Framework.  Were she next to him, and not all the way down the line, she would rest a hand on his cheek, and tell him she loved him no matter what his facial hair was.  But the whole team save Coulson sat between them.    

It was the alphabetical arrangement that was the worst, Jemma thought as Elena squeezed her knee.  That, and the individual holding cells.

And the guards that would have ICED her on the spot had she tried to break order and get to Fitz (this she now knew from experience).

Definitely not prison.  

A guard stood up and cleared his throat.  "You will be called into next room, one by one.  You will then have ten minutes to make one phone call."

"And if we don't have anyone to call?"

"Then you will move on, Agent Johnson."  He looked down at the list.  "Coulson, Philip J."

Coulson stood. "Really?  You needed a list for that?"

The guard gestured to the door.  With an air of false confidence, Coulson left.  

The others waited in silence.  Jemma rested her head on Elena's shoulder.  

"You could have gotten away," she said, for not the first time.

As always, Elena answered, "To what?"

Down the row, Mack shifted in his seat.  

"Fitz, Leopold J."

Six heads turns towards the guard.

"Where's Coulson?" May demanded.

The guard ignored her.  "Agent Fitz."

Jemma took a deep breath.  "Ask her to call my mum," she said, before Fitz had even fully stood.  

The guard opened the door.  "You can call her yourself, Agent Simmons."

"Fitz, please.  Tell her to let them know."

Fitz nodded and Jemma tried not to cry when he left.  

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

> Mum?
> 
> _Leo!_
> 
> Mum, I don't have much time, okay?
> 
> _Is this about your Daisy?   She was on the news here.  They said the director--_
> 
> It wasn't her, Mum.   But, listen, we got in trouble.  They won't say so, but they're sending us away.  Exiling us.
> 
> _Where?_
> 
> Don't know.
> 
> _What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’  Leo—_
> 
> Mum, please.  I don’t have much time.  Will you do me a favor?
> 
>  
> 
> _Of course._
> 
> Will you, um, will you call Ana and Chris?  And tell them…tell them that Jemma loves them.
> 
> _Why can’t she call?_
> 
> Please, Mum.  Just tell them she love them.
> 
>  
> 
> _Where’s Jemma, Leo?_
> 
> I don’t know.  I mean, she’s in the antechamber now.  But I don’t know…
> 
> _If you’ll be together?_
> 
> Yeah.  That.
> 
> _Have you told her?_
> 
> Told her what?
> 
> _That you love her._
> 
>  
> 
> She knows.

* * *

Fitz fiddled with his fingers in his lap.  If Simmons wasn’t so far from Fitz, this would be so hard.  But as soon as Elena had walked into the room, he knew Jemma was in the middle room, calling someone who wasn’t her parents to say goodbye.  And, no doubt, as soon as she finished, they would all be whisked back to their cells.  He ran a trembling hand across his chin.  The beard itched.  Across the room, the guards’ phone rung.

“Is that legal?...It’s a loophole that shouldn’t be there.  Just ignore it…” the guard sighed.  “Agent Fitz!”

Fitz cocked his head.  The guard held up the phone and, confused, Fitz stood and walked across the room.

“Hello?”

“ _Oh, thank god.  I didn’t know if it would actually work._ ”

Fitz let out a shaky breath.  “Only you would have thought of this.”  He could here Jemma swallow and could almost see her nodding.  Her eyes would be red, her nose all scrunched up in her determination not to cry.  Once, he might have kissed it smooth.

“ _Do you know that the last few weeks have taught me, Fitz?  Hell, the last twelve years?"_

He shook his head.  “I’m afraid it’s another thing you know that I don’t.”

“ _No, you do.  You know that no matter what happens, we always find our way back to each other.  Do you know where we’re going, Fitz?_ ”

“I don’t know anything.”

“ _Me neither.  Just remember, Fitz, in case I don’t get to see you: I love you.  I love you so much.  I love you more than anything in the entire universe.  And in every universe.  Fitz,  I love you so much."_

Her voice broke and it would be so easy for him to run to the door and hold her.  But if it ended their conversation, if it made her feel have the terror she felt when she had been ICEd running to him a week before...No, it was best to let her keep talking.

“Jemma,” he whispered.

“ _Fitz, never forget how much I love you.  That you are my everything._ ”

He swallowed heavily.  “I love you with all that I am.”  And he did, even if she deserved so much more.

“ _That’s all I’ve ever wanted_ ,” she managed through her sobs.

He clutched the phone tightly.

“ _We’ve never gotten to say goodbye before.  I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing._ ”

“You’ll be okay,” he told her.  A dial-tone responded.

A moment later, the door open and a guard marched her in.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her so distraught.

He dropped the phone.

Fuck the ICERS.  They’d invented them anyway.


End file.
